I went to Israel on a 10 day trip; our days were just packed with activities! We visited ancient cities of Acre, Jaffa and Tzfat, climbed Masada at sunrise and floated in the Dead Sea. We also rappelled from Ramon Crater, visited Tel Aviv’s Hall of Independence, took a tour of Jerusalem, and lastly we snorkeled in the Red Sea.

Israel is country amazingly oversaturated with history, and the amount of it per square foot was at times it was overwhelming. I’ve always felt a little strange studying ancient history in school: even when I liked the stories told by the teacher they were always a distant reality. Well, ancient history came alive to me in Israel. I was finally able to touch the stones of ancient cities, see the walls of Jerusalem, and climb the fortress Masada in the footsteps of the Romans.

Israel is not even 60 years old yet but all the Israelis with whom I’d spoken sounded very patriotic. It seems that when the environment is hostile and life has to be fought for almost daily, people work harder and treasure what they have much more. Overall, the people in Israel seemed to be kind, open, loving, hardworking, and although it might sounds strange, very happy.

I also fell in love with Israel’s nature – its deserts, seas and rocky hills. I couldn’t even imagine that this tiny place contains so much diversity! It was a fun and educational experience.

Natasha

The city of Acre:

The Negev Desert transportation:

Streets of Jaffa:

City of Tzfat:

Hiking in the Red Canyon:

A Bedouin preparing coffee:

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 24th, 2007 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.